Electricity sales slightly below year-earlier level

In the 2008 financial year, we sold 317.1 billion kWh of electricity to external customers–4 % more than in fiscal 2007. Electricity sales volumes are typically somewhat lower than the volume of power generated and purchased. This is due to grid losses as well as our in-house consumption by lignite production and pumped-storage power plants. RWE Supply & Trading accounted for 70.1 billion kWh of our electricity sales volume. These amounts result from the sale of in-house generation on the wholesale market.

At 13.5 billion kWh, RWE Power’s external electricity sales were much lower than the division’s production. This is because most of our German generation is sold on the market by RWE Supply & Trading and RWE Energy. Electricity produced outside Germany is marketed by RWE Power itself; this is predominantly generation by our Hungarian subsidiary Mátra. External sales also encompass production by our German Gundremmingen and Emsland nuclear power stations, which is allocable to the minority shareholder in these plants. One reason for the drop in RWE Power’s external sales compared to 2007 is that renewables-based generation capacity was transferred to RWE Innogy.

RWE Energy’s electricity sales increased by 6 % to 179.1 billion kWh, in part because we acquired new industrial and corporate customers. In addition, sales from business with other energy utilities were also up. There was also a rise in sales of electricity fed into RWE Energy’s grid and passed on to customers in compliance with the German law for the promotion of renewables-based energy. Sales to household and commercial customers decreased marginally. At the beginning of the year, we lost customers due to fiercer competition in the German supply business. However, these losses were partially compensated by customer acquisitions made by our Internet sales company eprimo and by product innovations. As of December 31, 2008, RWE Energy supplied electricity to 10.2 million customers, 7.0 million of whom were in Germany. That was some 120,000 fewer than at the end of 2007. These figures exclusively refer to our fully consolidated supply companies. eprimo more than doubled its customer base in 2008: By the end of the year, the company had already signed up 422,000 homes and commercial enterprises. Our “loyalty electricity offering” for German private customers, guaranteeing a fixed tariff over three years, was also very well received. It gives our customers planning security and flexibility as they can cancel the agreement on an annual basis. By December 31, 2008, some 500,000 households had signed up for this product. In the meantime, we have stopped marketing this product and it has been replaced by “ProKlima,” which we introduced in November 2008. “ProKlima” has a three-year price guarantee and can also be cancelled on an annual basis. What sets “ProKlima” apart is that all the electricity sold through it is generated in hydroelectric and nuclear power plants and is therefore nearly CO₂-free. We guarantee this with certificates of origin issued by an independent appraiser. By the end of 2008, 130,000 customers had already opted for this product. Another 70,000 were added in January 2009. Our market positions in Central Eastern Europe remained relatively stable. RWE Energy provides electricity to 2.2 million customers in Hungary and 0.9 million in Poland.

RWE npower’s electricity sales totalled 52.5 billion kWh, which was 4 % less year on year. The UK energy company reported customer losses across all customer segments. At the end of 2008, we served 4.2 million electricity customers in the UK–0.2 million fewer than a year earlier. RWE npower’s share of the household market is 15 % (2007: 16 %).